"This semester ACUE has really challenged me to grow in my teaching."

"This is an excellent resource for all faculty."

"I’ve made small adjustments to the classes I was teaching while going through the course, but am planning major revisions in my spring classes."

Dr. Ann Blankenship
Course-taker
University of Southern Mississippi

"I can manage to keep pace with each module and still complete everything on my extremely busy daily schedule."

Course-taker
California State University, Los Angeles

"Not only do I think that I have learned invaluable methods to take to the classroom, but I have also benefitted greatly from learning how to best connect with students."

Dr. Katie Smith
Course-taker
University of Southern Mississippi

"I’ve been teaching for a long time, but never had any pedagogical instruction. The format for reflection and discussion was extremely informative and inspiring."

Course-taker
Long Island University

"This was excellent training and very valuable!"

Dwight E.
Course-taker
Miami Dade College

"I gained so much from these modules."

Dr. Melissa Ziegler
Course-taker
University of Southern Mississippi

"With each module I said to myself, ‘This is the most useful one so far,’ and then the next week I said the same thing again."

Adam S.
Course-taker
Rutgers University-Newark

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Course in Effective Teaching Practices

Prepares college educators to implement all of the essential teaching practices.

ACUE’s Course in Effective Teaching Practices prepares college educators to implement all of the essential practices shown to improve student outcomes. The Course includes 25 one-hour online modules across five comprehensive units of study. Consisting of over 180 instructional videos, the Course showcases exemplary teaching on campuses nationwide and features interviews with leading experts in college instruction.

Tour a Course Module

ACUE’s online Course is organized into hour-long learning modules that address the essential teaching practices shown to improve student outcomes. Below are examples of the design standards included in every ACUE module, across five major units of study.

Common Challenges & Misconceptions

Learn about the common misconceptions and challenges instructors encounter.

Clarification: Grades rank students, assess how well an assignment was completed, and/or assess how well an outcome was met. Conversely, feedback “is designed to help students, not label them” (Friend, 2013). Grades can reveal a level of performance based on a scale, but they are often poor tools for indicating how performance can be improved. As Friend (2013) explains, “There is virtually no way for a letter to convey any real meaning related to assessment unless some other text accompanies it, in the form of elaboration, explanation, or correlation. In that case, the grade is not the critical element; it is instead the comment to which the grade points.”

Suggestion: If you view feedback as a teaching tool rather than as the final “verdict” (Friend, 2013), you will begin to distinguish between feedback and grading. You may decide to assign a grade on a paper marked with comments. But once you have assigned a grade, you diminish the learning opportunity for most students (Barnes, 2012; Friend, 2013).

Clarification: Columbia University’s Teaching Center advises, “Limit feedback to the amount of information that the student can absorb. Identify the key areas that need additional work.” This makes the feedback actionable. If students need a great deal of feedback, then they may actually be in need of more instruction. Attending your office hours or a tutoring session can enable students to receive better feedback that may resonate with them more than a sea of red ink.

Clarification: If you view grading and giving feedback on papers as correcting, then you may be missing an opportunity to teach. Feedback is an integral part of student learning, and researchers argue that “taking the time to provide learners with information on what exactly they did well, and what may still need improvement” is beneficial to all students (Stenger, 2014). Especially useful to students who have demonstrated improvement from one paper to the next is noting what the learner did differently than in previous assignments (Stenger, 2014). Students who put significant effort into assignments and are successful need feedback just as much as students who struggle or do not put in the required effort.

Suggestion: Let students know you recognize what they have learned. As Nilson (2010) writes, “Give praise where deserved, because students often do not know what they are doing right” (p 278). Explain to students why the work was effective and encourage them to apply the same strategies to future assignments.

Practice & Reflect

Apply techniques, reflect on the experience, share ideas with peers, and plan refinements.

Practice

For an upcoming class, choose one or more of the techniques covered in this module to provide useful feedback. Remember, these techniques can help you to:

Ensure your feedback is effective

Aligned to course/class session objectives

Timely

Actionable—focused and specific

Consequential

User-friendly—focused on the learning

Help students use feedback to improve

Give students the opportunity to practice revising

Conduct structured peer review sessions

Distribute handouts addressing common errors

Employ technologies to increase efficiency

Use video recording or audio recording

Use blogs, chats, or forums

Reflect

Write a reflection using this checklist and post it to the discussion forum below. To prepare a complete reflection, be sure to do the following:

Explain how you implemented a technique from the module, describe what worked well, and share student responses or reactions to the technique.

Describe any challenges you encountered, explain what may have led to those challenges, and include student reactions or responses.

List the next steps you will take, explain why you are taking these steps, and include a time frame for taking these steps.

Your reflection will be scored using this rubric. After you have posted your reflection, you will be able to see and comment on the reflections posted by your colleagues. For additional guidance in completing your reflection, review these annotated examples.

Sophie Adamson, PhD
Associate Professor of French
Chair of the Dept. of World Languages and Cultures
Elon University

Thomas A. Angelo, EdD
Clinical Professor of Educational Innovation & Research, &
Director, Educator Development for The Academy
UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Module References

Angelo, T. A. (2011). Efficient feedback for effective learning: How less can sometimes be more. Retrieved from http://planning.iupui.edu/

Burnham, C. C. (1986). Portfolio evaluation: Room to breathe and grow. In C. W. Bridges (Ed.), Training the new teacher of college composition (pp. 125–138). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

The Effective Practice Framework

ACUE’s Effective Practice Framework has been endorsed by the American Council on Education as a leading statement of the skills and knowledge that college educators should possess. ACUE’s Course addresses all of the specific topics in the Framework’s five domains.

2Establishing a Productive Learning Environment

Modules in this unit present techniques for embracing diversity, helping students persist, and connecting with students to help instructors create the kind of classroom environment that best supports learning.

3Using Active Learning Techniques

We know students learn more when they are actively engaged in their learning. Modules in this unit feature active learning techniques for large and smaller classrooms as well as techniques for planning and facilitating engaging classroom discussions.